


Meet Choly

by Semiotaxonomy



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Backstory, F/F, Gen, Something mentioned in canon, WARNING for sad dinosaurs with suicidal leanings, Way pre-relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-18
Updated: 2015-10-18
Packaged: 2018-04-26 23:56:33
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,263
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5025655
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Semiotaxonomy/pseuds/Semiotaxonomy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A story about a heroine and a damsel.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Meet Choly

There was somebody else visiting the trash that day. Undyne had seen the hunched figure on her way in and shouted a greeting, wondering if she'd found a rousing dumpster-diving rival. This yielded no response beyond a shuddering twitch. So okay, she thought, whoever this person was was busy; more swords for her.

Whoever this person was was still there when she came back empty-sword-handed, still perched atop the trash zone's highest waterfall. They -- she, a little lizardy woman -- had been standing in a pensive droop, but now she sat with her feet just over the edge, framed by the trailing streams of water. If you were Undyne, it could maybe be considered badass. An adrenaline rush, surely, to feel the pressure of the current on your back gently pushing you towards the void, knowing how easy it would be to slip and put an end to everything --

That was how Undyne would've thought about it, anyway. There was a knot in her stomach worse than the king ever gave her; she realized suddenly that she had stopped walking to look. This more than anything was what decided her, because it had never been Undyne's style to just stand and stare, and she sort of resented that it had happened. So she waded over, blurting out the first thing that came to mind: "Where do you think it goes?"

Lizardgirl didn't move. A barely audible "What?" came from her general direction.

"I said --" Undyne sat next to her on the precipice with a forceful splash "-- where does it go?"

More clearly, her eyes fixed on Undyne's feet with a look of despair, the girl said, "Nowhere."

"No way, not buying it. You've been looking out there long enough to have a few theories. I wanna know what you see! Nothing goes nowhere!"

"O-okay, yeah, it's not _technically_ nowhere. There, there has to be another cavern down there, right? And, I mean, we get geo, um, energy, from below, I mean, so there's probably a - a lot of heat, I mean." As she spoke she went pale, then red, and her eyes searched everywhere before settling tentatively on Undyne's chin. It looked like she couldn't quite comprehend a hot fish-woman talking to her, which was pretty normal.

Undyne was not familiar with the sense of being in over her head, so ignored it. "Yeah?"

That, trivially enough, seemed to flip the switch. Maybe because this girl had finally actually said something and Undyne was still interested -- she _was_ , even if it was hard to follow -- but she seized on the topic with a desperate vehemence. "I think! That the garbage must be filtered out somewhere down there! And become a natural fuel! Well, not natural. But I've always found trash to be very effective kindling! Even on accident! Plus, past the capital there are those steam caves..."

"Are you saying," Undyne said, "that the world is secretly _on fire _?__ "

"M... maybe? I have other --"

"That is SO cool. Tell me more!"

Lizardgirl licked her scaly pseudolips and made eye contact as if Undyne were a blinding inferno. "N-no, that can't -- you must have something b-better to do. You don't mean. I'm not very interesting." Her tail lay limply curled between them, fluttering in the rushing water. She was wearing a labcoat soaked dingy grey with garbage-water up to the shoulders, and glasses stained to uselessness. It was cold, especially if you weren't a fish, and ever so faintly, she was shivering. Always tough to guess who was cold-blooded and who just resembled it.

Anyway, the way she ended every sentence in a different flavor of tangible despair than she started was compelling in its own disturbing form.

As for herself, Undyne was even even wetter and grosser, in no shape to either judge or help. Her stained t-shirt felt like a fine ooze sticking to her; her hair clung in nasty mats against her skull, even cropped short as it was. (Frankly, she already looked like garbage with short hair, but practicality had to come before style, right?) They should basically both get the hell out of here. Or she wanted to sling an arm over the woman's slouch, casual and easy like nothing, maybe deliver a stern noogie. But none of those things were happening; you didn't go around delivering emotional suplexes to strangers just because you could. She just leaned in closer. "Man, I'm picking around a garbage dump. I definitely don't have anything better to do. I was just hoping I'd get lucky and find a cool weapon."

"I'llmakeyouone."

"Make one?" Undyne un-leaned in surprise. Lizardgirl looked equally surprised, but went on feverishly.

"A weapon! I've made so many weapons. So many. But you'll like it. I can do that! You like heat rays right??"

"Well, yeah, I do, but I meant more like a sword or a spear."

" _Oh_." The eyes widened right around the edges of the glasses. Like this was a divine revelation. "I, that, I can do that too, of course I can! It's -- Have you seen _Cherry Blossoms Souls Hime_?"

"Uh... I don't really watch much TV."

The girl froze and did the white-then-red thing again. She probably had to be warm-blooded after all. "Uh, really? Wow. That's, actually that's great. You're better off, heh heh, probably! All I meant was you remind me of a, um, a hero I learned about once..."

"YES," Undyne replied, splashing to an awkward crouch before she got ahold of herself. "Are you serious? That is awesome. I'm _so_ glad I met you. I'm Undyne."

She put out a hand and waited patiently for Lizardgirl to change colors some more. It took a while. Finally she didn't take the handshake, but sort of tapped it like a pet learning to give appendage. "Alphys," she said with audible regret.

"Huh. Do I know that name?"

And _that_ , trivially enough, seemed to be a serious misstep: Alphys flinched and paled yet again and glanced away in fits until her head was turned. This was stupid, Undyne decided in a burst of absolute outrage. Why should anyone have to be _this_ miserable? And furthermore, why was she herself being so useless? Undyne was under personal training by King Asgore, who, besides being freaking strong, might be the _nicest_ monster in the underground, to keep the people's peace. Talking to said people was not the skill being taught, okay, but she ought to be able to save a sweet smart sad dinosaur in distress at least a _little_.

She put her damn arm over the slouch after all. She gripped the far shoulder. She held on firmly, feeling the water on her back. She waited.

"No," Alphys murmured eventually, "you're right," and gathered her legs up. "I, I, I, I'm the Royal Scientist. I can do great things. Or, no, I can do good things, maybe. I'm going to make you something. It'll work."

With her hand on Alphys's shoulder, Undyne didn't quite pull her up. She didn't quite not, either. There was no point forcing somebody to their feet, but there was no reason support couldn't be really firm. She could still feel the effort moving through those soft, squishy muscles and bad posture. "I don't really care about any of that," she said. "Y'wanna go look for parts? But you have to keep telling me about things burning."

"Oh, um, I'm not sure burning is the right word. There's also pressure from the weight of all this dirt and rock to consider, and the friction..." They wandered off, and Undyne let go.


End file.
